Construction talks about digitalization, but does the field confirm it?
By: Rim Saadi, Senior Product Owner at Metam
In my family, construction is almost a heritage.
Daughter of an architect and a project manager, I grew up at the heart of this world. My uncle and my aunt are also architects, and my grandfather was a surveyor.
Needless to say, all our family conversations revolved around construction sites, delays, or unexpected events.
Very early on, I understood that in this industry, nothing ever goes as planned. Cost overruns and delays don’t always come from incompetent labor or poorly designed schedules.
They are often the result of unexpected events… which seem to follow their own calendar.
Today, with my experience as a civil engineer on site, I know how much every decision, every measurement, and every adjustment can directly impact costs, timelines, and quality.
Construction loves to talk about digitalization. BIM, apps, AI, IoT, collaborative platforms…
On paper, everything is digitalized. On site, much less.
Plans change, equipment breaks down, materials are delayed, weather disrupts the work, and teams are numerous and diverse.
Every unexpected event, technical, logistical, or human triggers a domino effect on budget, schedule, and quality.
Real workflows on site: a daily challenge
On the ground, teams follow well-established routines: updating schedules, tracking orders, monitoring progress.
But as soon as all this information needs to be synchronized among multiple stakeholders, friction appears:
- Photos without context
- Measurements on paper
- Annotated plans left behind
- Information shared verbally or through scattered messages
The result: time lost searching for information, reconnecting with the right people, or redoing measurements that were already taken.
And that’s just the “normal” daily life. Unexpected events pile up:
- Plans change at the last minute
- Delivery notes arrive late or undocumented
- Accidents require quick coordination
The construction site is only part of the equation
Architects and project managers must manage simultaneously:
- Translating the creative vision into precise, buildable plans
- Communicating with the site so the design is correctly implemented
- Tracking budgets, deadlines, and risks
- Controlling costs and validating completed work
Any break in the flow of information can create delays, duplication, errors, financial discrepancies, and extra pressure on teams.
In construction, everyone depends on everyone else, and any misalignment impacts multiple aspects of the project.
Sector-specific challenges
Construction faces unique obstacles that make digitalization particularly complex:
- Diversity of stakeholders and different working habits
- Unpredictable site conditions (weather, hard-to-reach areas, or accidents)
- Heterogeneous data (plans, photos, 3D models, daily reports, or Excel files)
- Office/site gap: what is planned in the office does not always reflect reality
- Frequent and rapid changes: modified plans, delayed deliveries, or unavailable equipment
These challenges are not new. As early as 2019, McKinsey identified several major barriers:
- Fragmentation of actors
- Uniqueness of each project
- Multiple teams and strong decentralization
These findings remain relevant today.
Understanding reality before technology
With my dual perspective as a construction engineer and product manager, I learned one essential thing: Technology does not solve problems by itself.
Digitalization begins with:
- Understanding how information really flows
- Accepting that the site will never follow a perfect plan
Teams already use tools to track progress or record measurements.
But when digitalization is not aligned with the reality on the ground, it becomes an additional challenge rather than a lever of efficiency.
Myth vs reality
Myth #1: “Just digitize to manage better.”
Scanning documents or storing them in the cloud without a clear workflow or version control creates neither traceability nor trust.
Myth #2: “A site app = a controlled site.”
The field is alive. It changes every day.
If tools do not reflect this reality, they become decorative and create an illusion of tracking.
Myth #3: “Digitalization automatically improves quality and safety.”
Quality and safety rely on consistency, traceability, and quick action.
Digital checklists or unstructured “as-built” plans do not allow for analysis, continuous improvement, or predictive maintenance.
Digitalization is often seen as a miracle solution.
Yet if the system is not tailored to the right industry, it only transfers the problem elsewhere.
Before AI and IoT, one essential question
There is a lot of talk about AI, connected objects, and advanced analytics.
These technologies have real potential: anticipating needs, detecting deviations, or identifying risks.
But without reliable, structured, field-sourced data, these technologies remain theoretical.
They amplify existing processes, good or bad.
Does digitalization truly help teams on site?
The truth?
Digitalization rarely fails because of technology.
It fails when it ignores the reality of the construction site.
For me, the true digital maturity of a project lies in the ability to align tools with the reality on the ground, not the other way around.
And that, no technology can do alone.
The question is not to digitalize… but to know for whom.
References and sources
McKinsey & Company (2019). Decoding digital transformation in construction. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/decoding-digital-transformation-in-construction
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